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The purpose of this study is to contribute to the theory and practice of project management in the construction industry by identifying the primary causes and extracting the underlying causes of construction delays and providing recommendations on delay mitigation measures.

AA survey was used to identify the importance of 47 causes of delays. The relative importance index was used to rank them, factor analysis was applied to extract the underlying causes and focus group interviews were used for discussion and development of mitigation measures.

Six of the ten most important causes are in the top ten universal delays in construction projects. Factor analysis revealed six underlying causes: improper planning, poor consultant performance, inefficient site management, owner influence, bureaucracy and sub-standard contracts.

The owner/sponsor/client must have adequate engineering and project management skills to be able to evaluate proposals and contractors more accurately, economically and technically. The bidding and contract award process should focus on the most economically advantageous proposal and contracts should provide for mechanisms for managing risks while executing projects. Contractors should select reliable, high-quality subcontractors and suppliers and should have competent site managers.

This work expands and improves the understanding of the causes of delays in construction projects by providing an empirical study of the causes of delays and respective mitigation measures in Portugal.

This research aims to determine to what extent uncertainties affected manufacturing enterprises' delivery performance, to analyse the performance of their contingency plans in dealing with uncertainties and to explore what technical and organisational factors affected managers' decisions to implement an uncertainty‐diagnosing model.

The methodology included a literature review, postal questionnaire survey and telephone interviews.

A total of 30 companies responded to the questionnaire, 56 per cent of which thought their systems worked well and 80 per cent reported that material shortages were responsible for tardy delivery performance. Tardy delivery was directly or indirectly caused by poor supplier delivery performance in the opinion of 92 per cent of respondents. Seven companies had developed an uncertainty‐diagnosing model. Not all companies needed to adopt the model.

Uncertainty and contingency plans were investigated in UK and Chinese organisations using MRP/MRPII/ERP systems. Therefore, the findings will be directly relevant to the organisations, but may be adapted to other similar organisations.

A detection method was proposed to determine the steps required for organisations to adopt the uncertainty‐diagnosing model.

The paper provides some empirical data on uncertainty and the contingency plans used in ERP‐controlled manufacturing environments in organisations in the UK and China. Data on uncertainty are scarce and this research gives further insights into the ways managers perceive and handle uncertainty.

An increasingly utilized framework for implementing the continuous improvement management philosophy is the Theory of Constraints (TOC). Although this systemic managerial approach was initially developed and applied in the manufacturing sector, its underlying philosophy has been expanded to address three basic questions: What to change?; What to change to?; and How to cause the change? Demonstrates how a manager could apply the TOC thinking process (TP) logic tools to answer the first two questions for a small service organization. In regard to the first query, uses a relatively new procedure called the “three‐cloud approach” to determine the core problem or root cause responsible for the majority of the problems currently faced by management. By using this approach, a manager creates a current reality tree (CRT) that uses sufficiency logic to document the cause‐effect relationships responsible for a system’s current state. In regard to the second query, develops another TOC logic tool, a future reality tree (FRT), to help construct and evaluate planned interventions for resolving the core conflict and improving effectiveness. Draws conclusions relative to the feasibility and utility of using TOC TP logic tools to help managers of service organizations improve their overall system performance.

The highest number of accidents in proportion to the employment rate is found in construction industry among all industries in Pakistan. The purpose of this paper is to identify and prioritize the contributory factors of accident causation that can significantly reduce the rate of accident in the construction industry.

In total, 32 contributory factors of accident causation were identified through a triangulation strategy comprising eight face-to-face semi-structured interviews with the academic and industry experts coupled with a comprehensive literature review. Delphi survey was then conducted among the four respondent groups (clients, contractors, safety official and academia) to prioritize these factors. A consensus was achieved among the respondent groups after conducting two rounds of Delphi survey. Finally, the results were validated using the technique of inter-rater agreement (IRA) analysis.

All the shortlisted accident causation factors were graded as “important” to “extremely important”. Moreover, a “moderate” to “strong level” agreement was developed among the respondent groups. The three most significant factors were highlighted as “poor enforcement of safety rules and regulations by the Government agencies”, “insufficient allocation of safety budget and safety incentives by the client”, and “insufficient provision of safety training and resources by the contractor”.

The findings will help the key stakeholders to prioritize their energies towards achieving zero accident in the construction industry. Moreover, addition of academic experts as one of the respondent groups will enhance the linkages between the academia and the industry practitioners.

Besides highlighting the underlying causes of construction accidents in Pakistan, a detailed methodology is presented in this study for the analysis and validation of the Delphi survey data, which can be extrapolated in other regions and industries for elements prioritization. The findings of the study can also be generalized for other developing countries having similar work environment. The results validation through the use of IRA analysis is an addition to the field of construction safety research. The study also authenticates the applicability of IRA analysis to assess the agreement level among the respondents.

Rework is an endemic problem in construction projects and has been identified as being a significant factor contributing cost and schedule overruns. Causal ascription is necessary to obtain knowledge about the underlying nature of rework so that appropriate prevention mechanisms can be put in place. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Using a supervised questionnaire survey and case-study interviews, data from 112 building and engineering projects about the sources and causes of rework in projects were obtained. A multivariate exploration was conducted to examine the underlying relationships between rework variables.

The analysis revealed that there was a significant difference between rework causes for building and civil engineering projects. The set of associations explored in the analyses will be useful to develop a generic causal model to examine the quantitative impact of rework on project performance so that appropriate prevention strategies can be identified and developed.

The limitations include: small data set (112 projects), which include 75 from building and 37 from civil engineering projects.

Meaningful insights into the rework occurrences in construction projects will pave pathways for rational mitigation and effective management measures.

To date there has been limited empirical research that has sought to determine the causal ascription of rework, particularly in Hong Kong.

Purpose – The DSM-III reflected American psychiatry's shift from a dynamic approach to a descriptive diagnostic approach. This chapter seeks to elucidate the implications of this shift for the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness.

Methodology/approach – To shed light on this issue I analyze the diagnosis and treatment implications of this shift for Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD).

Findings – The transition to the diagnostic approach has had three consequences for the handling of ADD, and later Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): first, it increased the number of children diagnosed with the disorder; second, it encouraged clinicians to treat the disorder with psychostimulants; and third, it expanded the pool of clinicians who could prescribe stimulants.

Contribution to the field – Beyond illuminating the specific cases of ADD and ADHD, this analysis contributes to the medicalization literature by demonstrating that there is more to be studied than merely the expansion or contraction of diagnostic categories. Researchers also have to analyze the implicit assumptions within the diagnostic definitions, which have implications for the prevalence and treatment of illness.

No scholar or researcher is able to provide robust evidence that counters the scant reflection on metatheory – mostly ontology and epistemology – underlying management studies in general, and industrial marketing and purchasing research in particular. This paper is a contribution to the indispensable discussion of metatheoretical alternatives in research, and most importantly, the strengths and shortcomings thereof, and respective implications on research questions, objectives, and findings.

The authors propose that “root cause analysis,” coupled with critical thinking, is applicable to understanding and resolving contentious disagreements that arise from time to time within management teams. By subjecting the disagreement to a step-by-step analytical process, a rich array of considerations often surfaces, a more expansive discussion ensues, and the decided course of action is likely to be more wholeheartedly embraced.

The authors demonstrate how leaders can resolve conflicts productively by creating a culture of candor and methodically exploring the root cause underlying critical management team disagreements. They have organized the process into three parts.

When a management team acknowledges and addresses “[…]the disagreement and they start to look for the real issue and separate the symptoms from the causes,” that is when the potential for positive outcomes arises and disagreement recedes.

The authors show that a guided, analytical root-cause process for resolving disagreements is a worthy addition to every strategic leader’s tool kit.

This step-by-step process is easy for a leaders at all levels to internalize and practice.

This article summarises different approaches to defining what constitutes a drug‐related death (DRDs) and how they can be classified. DRDs usually fall into two broad categories: (a) those directly attributable to the consumption of drugs (both illegal and licit) eg. overdose and poisoning, and (b) indirect ‐ those which occur as a consequence of having a drug habit that exposes individuals to the risk of dying in some other way, eg. blood‐borne infections, accidents. Most attention is currently given to direct or ‘acute’ DRDs rather than the long‐term consequences of drug abuse. Problems associated with accurately deriving DRD statistics are outlined. Despite their limitations, such information is essential for identifying issues related to drug use and measuring progress against targets set for reducing DRDs.

In previous research publications the authors combined the available knowledge about obsolescence in a conceptual model for further research on and appliance in the decision making about demolition. Since evidence-based theoretical research references on obsolescence are rare, the model inevitably had an explorative character. The purpose of this paper is to test and elaborate the model.

A series of case studies were conducted in various residential building estates. In each estate the types of obsolescence (according to the model) and their interrelationships were identified.

The model can usefully be applied; it enables the determination of types of obsolescence. The case studies also show that several types of obsolescence occur simultaneously, and that these types can be interrelated. This touches upon the complexity of cause-effect mechanisms as already mentioned in the introduction. One of the weaknesses is that information is sometimes available for only one point in time, and that the availability of information varies with the type of obsolescence.

The study is based on a limited selection of case studies. Further, the causal relationships between the types of obsolescence could not always be revealed.

The current model does not distinguish between causes and effects. For further development of the model, cause-effect processes have to be further analysed.

Actual measurement of the extent of obsolescence per type is not part of this study, but has to be carried out before social implications can adequately be indicated.

The paper presents a conceptual classification of obsolescence that turns out to be workable when tested in practice.